There are known in the prior art merchandising machines which are adapted to deliver articles of merchandise from respective units, each of which delivers its articles in return for the deposit in the machine of money aggregating the price at which articles in that unit are to be sold. One example of a merchandising machine of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,604 issued Mar. 2, 1982 to Merrill Krakauer. In that machine the delivery or dispensing units are represented by the various levels of a drum which rotates about a vertical axis to carry compartments of the respective levels past normally closed doors in the front of the machine. In the course of a dispensing operation upon the deposit in the machine of money aggregating the purchase price of an article at a level, a door unlocking solenoid at that level is adapted to be energized upon the initiation of an opening movement of the door to be moved to a fully open position to afford access to a compartment behind the door. The machine shown in this patent is provided with an arrangement for doubling the number of compartments at a level, while at the same time reducing the size of each compartment by a half. U.S. Pat. No. 4,391,388 issued July 5, 1983 to Merrill Krakauer, discloses an improved control system for the machine shown in the Krakauer '604 patent which permits each level of the machine to be set to operate in either a "shopper" mode or in a "FIFO" mode. As is known in the art, in the "shopper" mode the articles at the level are depleted in the order in which they are selected by the customer. In the "FIFO" mode of operation the articles are delivered or dispensed only in a predetermined order.
In use of the machines of the type described hereinabove, some means was provided for indicating the price at which an article of merchandise in a particular level was sold. Such indicators may, for example, be price indicators of the type commonly employed in food markets to display the prices of the various articles of merchandise. It will readily be appreciated that changing these price displays is a relatively time consuming and cumbersome operation.
The desirability of selling perishable articles such as platters of food or the like at a reduced price later in the day at the plant or the like in which the merchandising machine is installed will be obvious. Machines of the prior art are not readily adapted to such an operation. First, they usually require a serviceman to change the prices. Moreover, where the prices are changed the price indications at the various levels must be correspondingly changed. Where this operation must be performed by a serviceman, the benefits gained from selling the articles at reduced prices are more than outweighed by the cost of the serviceman's time.